Mahsa Alimardani

May 2, 2024 | carnegieendowment.org | Mahsa Alimardani

Last month, the European Union’s update to its Iran sanctions list had one notable development: the removal of Abr Arvan, the Iranian cloud technology company that the EU had sanctioned in November 2022 for human rights violations related to internet censorship. The timing of this decision is surprising. After every major uprising, the Iranian regime develops new policies to counter threats from activists, and this moment is no different.

Nov 29, 2023 | carnegieendowment.org | Steven Feldstein |Mahsa Alimardani |Afef Abrougui |Janjira Sombatpoonsiri

Across the globe, the struggle between rights and repression persists. Digital technology remains at the center of these contests. Governments continue to use censorship strategies, mass surveillance measures, disinformation campaigns, and internet shutdowns to counter political protests, rig elections, and consolidate military coups. The 2023 Freedom on the Net report reflected this, indicating thirteen consecutive years of global internet freedom declines.

Nov 29, 2023 | carnegieendowment.org | Arindrajit Basu |Mahsa Alimardani |Afef Abrougui |Janjira Sombatpoonsiri

In 1999, noted U.S. human rights scholar Louis Henkin delivered an emphatic (and now famous) lecture at Fordham School of Law calling for the erasure of “sovereignty,” or “that S word,” from international political and legal discourse. He argued that sovereignty had been used illegitimately to protect state control at the expense of human rights protection and enforcement.

Nov 19, 2023 | carnegieendowment.org | Mahsa Alimardani |Arindrajit Basu |Agustina Del Campo |Steven Feldstein

The latest publication from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Digital Democracy Network, a diverse group of thinkers and activists working on global issues of technology and politics, probes four cross-cutting themes: the shifting landscape of digital repression in regions across the globe; the evolving role of digital sovereignty; the tensions between platforms, digital rights, and transparency; and issues of geopolitics and technological governance.